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Sandra Popham, sales manager at Coldwell Banker Upchurch Realty, works inside her offiice on Tuesday, December 20, 2011. Popham, who has worked at Coldwell Banker Upchurch Realty for 37 years and six months, plans to retire to spend more time with her sister, daughter and grandchildren. (AJ Reynolds/Staff andrew.reynolds@onlineathens.com)

Popham nears end of long career with Upchurch Realty

Managing editor

Sandra Popham didn’t think she wanted to go back to work when she and her husband came to Athens 37 years ago to look for a new home.

But their real estate agent, Charlie Upchurch II, not only was sure he could find them a home, he was sure he had found the woman to make his new office run smoothly.

He was right.

Nearly four decades later, Popham is retiring from her post as residential sales manager at Coldwell Banker Upchurch Realty, which has grown in those years from four agents to 70.

“It’s hard to pack up 37 years,” she said last week as she looked around the boxes and stacks of paper in her office. “But I’ve been here so long, and it’s time to let new people take over.”

Popham planned to put in another year at Coldwell Banker Upchurch Realty, but her older sister has ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) and needs her, so Popham will retire at the end of this year. Plus, she wants to spend time with her daughter and grandchildren in Gainesville and do volunteer work, perhaps at St. Mary’s Hospital.

She’s confident in her successor — Jennifer Varnadoe, the current office manager — but will miss the agents.

“Everyone in this office works together. We are a family and a team. Agents will pass clients off to other agents; agents will help each other. This has always been my second family.”

Popham joined Upchurch Realty as a secretary in 1974, then became office manager. On Christmas Day 1990, Upchurch asked her to become residential sales manager, a job she didn’t want at first.

But, again, he was right.

“He had more vision than anyone I have ever known,” Popham said. “He knew what he wanted Athens to be like, he knew what he wanted this office to be like.

“He said to me, ‘I want you to do everything you can to help these boys sell,’” Popham recalled.

And that’s what she did.

“If they have a problem, I’m going to solve it,” she said. “That’s what I’ve tried to do all these years — make deals go through.”

Upchurch Realty now sells twice the volume of any other realty company in Athens.

“She’s like a mother to me,” said agent Taylor Murray. “I don’t know what I’m going to do without her. She means so much to so many.”